IPL 2026: Mumbai Indians Defeat KKR by 6 Wickets, Breaking their Opening-Match Curse

Mumbai Indians defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders in their first IPL 2026 match on 29 March 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, in a shocking turn of events, breaking their 13-year-long curse of losing opening games.

The Mumbai Indians had not won their first match of an IPL season since 2012. Chasing 221 against Kolkata Knight Riders, MI got there in 19.1 overs with 6 wickets in hand, their most comfortable start to a season in over a decade.

KKR Vs MI Match Scorecard

KKR Batting: Rahane and Raghuvanshi Power a 220-Plus Total

MI won the toss and put KKR in. Ajinkya Rahane, at the toss, said he had never seen the Wankhede carry that much grass. It did not slow KKR down.

Finn Allen walked in and immediately put Hardik Pandya under pressure: five dot balls, then an explosion. He took MI debutant AM Ghazanfar apart in his first over, first clearing the deep square boundary and then sending one 86 metres over wide long-on. Rahane was just as aggressive at the other end, pulling Hardik for two consecutive sixes to close out a 26-run over. Allen then followed with three fours in a row. KKR crossed fifty in 3.5 overs, their quickest against MI in the IPL.

Shardul Thakur, making his debut for MI, put the brakes on Allen’s innings in the sixth over. A slower delivery outside off tempted Allen into a drive, and he ended up shovelling it straight to long-off. Allen walked off for 37 off 17 balls. Rahane carried on, striking two boundaries off Thakur as KKR closed the powerplay at 78/1.

Shardul Thakur Dismantles the KKR Middle Order on Debut

Cameron Green walked in at No. 3 and lasted all of ten balls. Thakur found him with one that angled across outside off, and Green could only push a catch to the boundary fielder. Then came the big one, Rahane. On 67, looking set for a bigger score, he got a hard-length ball on off stump that he failed to get on top of, the mistimed drive going straight to extra cover. Thakur had three wickets, Rahane was gone, and KKR, despite still scoring at over ten an over, had lost their two most settled batters.

Bumrah (4-0-35) and Boult (4-0-38) offered MI the control they needed in the middle overs. KKR were not collapsing, but they were no longer accelerating freely either.

Raghuvanshi Finds His Footing After a Slow Start

Angkrish Raghuvanshi came in needing to rebuild. For a while, it looked like he might not, stuck on 17 off 14, he then got a let-off when Rohit put down a catch at long-on. From that moment, the innings changed shape.

He put the 15th over away against Ghazanfar; a four, then a six, and followed it up by clearing the long-on rope off Thakur. Rinku Singh, at the other end, found his rhythm too, and together the two put on 60 off 30 balls for the fourth wicket. Raghuvanshi’s fifty came up off 28 balls, a complete turnaround from where he had been twelve deliveries earlier. KKR went past 200 in the 19th over. Rinku, unbeaten on 33 off 21, could not push the total higher. KKR finished at 220/4, their second-highest score against MI in the IPL.

Rohit Sharma Back to His Best: 78 off 38 at the Wankhede

Rohit started the way he often does, measured, watchful, a little slow. Twelve off eight at one point. The Wankhede had seen this enough times to know what follows.

He picked up Varun Chakravarthy’s pattern early. His T20 strike rate against Varun heading into the night was under 100. First ball he faced him, he drove him inside-out over covers. Next ball, he lifted him for six. By the time the sixth over ended, Rohit was at 50 off 23 balls, the fastest fifty of his IPL career. MI had reached 80 without losing a wicket.

The 100-run mark came in 8.1 overs. By the time he fell, caught at mid-off by Anukul Roy off Vaibhav Arora, for 78 off 38 (6 fours, 6 sixes), MI needed fewer than nine an over. That required rate, at the start of the innings, had been above eleven. The chase was effectively done before the halfway point of MI’s innings.

Ryan Rickelton Answers Every Question About His Selection

Picking Rickelton over Quinton de Kock raised eyebrows. By the time he was dismissed, there were no more questions.

He used the first couple of overs to get a feel for the surface. Once he did, Vaibhav Arora got the full treatment, two sixes in consecutive deliveries, one over extra cover and one over deep midwicket. It set the tone for what followed. After the power play, Rickelton turned his attention to Narine. He slog swept him over deep midwicket in Narine’s first over, then went back for two more sixes in three balls in his next. That was his fifty, 24 balls, four fours, six sixes.

He kept going from there. Only a brilliant direct hit from Anukul Roy at the boundary, while Rickelton was going for a second run, brought his innings to an end. He left the ground having made 81 off 43 at a strike rate of 188.37. The partnership with Rohit, 148 off 71 balls, had long settled the result.

Pandya, Tilak, and Dhir Close It Out

After Rickelton’s run-out and Suryakumar Yadav’s brief 16 off 8 as Impact Sub, MI still needed more composure than fireworks. Tilak Varma provided exactly that, 20 off 14, keeping the run rate in check. Hardik Pandya, the captain, stayed unbeaten on 18 off 11. Naman Dhir hit the last runs, five off two balls off Anukul Roy, to finish the job with five balls remaining.

KKR’s Bowlers Had No Grip on the Chase

KKR walked into this match already short of frontline seamers. It was obvious from the first over of MI’s innings. Arora (4-0-52-1) and Muzarabani (3-0-34-0) could not build pressure. Chakravarthy, usually the man KKR turn to when they need something to happen, went for 48 in four overs without a wicket. Narine picked one up but conceded 30 in three, a far cry from the bowler he once was.

There was no phase of the chase where KKR looked like they were pulling things back.

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What’s Next

MI will be back in action on April 8 when they travel to face the Delhi Capitals, a chance to back up this win with back-to-back points on the road. They then host the Rajasthan Royals on April 13 at the Wankhede, where they will be expected to carry the momentum of Sunday’s performance. 

For KKR, the more pressing concern is the bowling attack. Harshit Rana, Akash Deep, and Matheesha Pathirana were all unavailable for this game, and their next fixture is against Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 6, a side that will punish the same thin pace unit if the injury situation does not improve. One win and two points separate these sides on the table right now. The gap in squad depth, however, looks wider than that.

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